Peggy Noonan’s Appropriate Rebuke of Sarah Palin

East Coast pseudo-conservative Peggy Noonan, once an open supporter of then-candidate Barack Obama, shared her insights on the aftermath of the stunning Republican wave that was the 2010 midterm elections.  In doing so, Noonan, who does possess a certain insightful clarity at times, gave a resounding warning to both Democrats and Republicans that the message of the midterms should be seriously considered as the legislative agenda now shambles forward.

President Obama received some stinging blows from Noonan’s column – more so because those blows are both accurate and much deserved.  To date,  Barack Obama has been an abject failure as president.  His party, namely its moderate Democrats, faced an electoral firing squad in 2010, and yet Obama remains oddly aloof and seemingly disinterested in the outcome that decimated his own party.  Noonan’s description of Obama as a “human depression” manages both humor, sadness, and critique of a politician who now seems without hope – a thin, tired, shuffling figure walking into the walls of his own self-made political prison.

And while the descriptions of Obama’s lacking abilities were good, it was perhaps Noonan’s almost after-thought rebuke of Tea Party favorite Sarah Palin that proved more powerful.  Palin, who has clearly tapped into the frustrations and mistrust many now feel toward the American government, still finds herself prone to saying things best described as…dumb.  Palin, in an attempt to defend her newfound celebrity status and involvement in her own reality show, gave a dismissive accounting of Reagan’s pre-political career as follows, “Wasn’t Ronald Reagan an actor? Wasn’t he in ‘Bedtime for Bonzo,’ Bozo, something? Ronald Reagan was an actor.”

Yes Sarah, Reagan was for a good portion of his adult life, “an actor”.  As Noonan, who herself was once employed as a Reagan speech writer, so aptly pointed out, Reagan’s life was in so many ways a beautiful arc of Americana – a self-made man who while acting, was nominated seven times as president of the Screen Actors Guild.  Spent nearly a decade as a spokesperson for General Electric which allowed Reagan to travel across the nation and meet the American middle class face to face, an experience Reagan himself later noted as playing a pivotal role in more fully developing his understanding of conservative American values. Two (full) terms as California governor followed, as well as failed attempts to win the Republican nomination for President.

As Peggy Noonan so capably put it in her column – and that Sarah Palin and all Tea Party members would do well to both understand and remember…”The point is that Reagan’s career is a guide, not only for the tea party but for all in politics. He brought his fully mature, fully seasoned self into politics with him. He wasn’t in search of a life when he ran for office, and he wasn’t in search of fame; he’d already lived a life, he was already well known, he’d accomplished things in the world.”

Tip of the hat to you this time Peggy – you were spot on with this one.

Reference:  http://www.peggynoonan.com/